After much debating on picking this up or not, I decided that it would be foolish to stop on an arc with only one issue left to go.

Let’s be clear here, and I know Amazing Spider-Man has picked up some steam the last 5-6 issues; but Ultimate Spider-Man is the best Spider-Man series out there. Bendis is gifted at writing at a teenage perspective and Stuart Immonen is the 2nd best artist on this book. (First obviously being Mark Bagley). But this arc has just been dragging it’s feet in my eyes. Sure you get an awesome battle with the Ultimates two issues ago, but overall nothing has really wowed me.

With Gwen Stacy returning, it should’ve had this huge impact but it didnt really. Oh sure Parker was surprised and all, but it just didnt have the emotional factor like it should’ve had. This issue overall was better then the other issues, only because the fight between Venom and Carnage was pretty fun. Plus that last page reveal was pretty sweet, let’s hope Ultimate Beetle shows up in the future.

But let’s get one thing straight here, unless NYC exploded in the middle of this issue…we all knew where the ending would lead us. Thanks to Marvel’s decision to publish this after Loeb’s Ultimatium, the return of Gwen Stacy was ruined. Maybe that’s why I didnt feel so much emotional impact with her returning, maybe subconciously Bendis didnt go far with it cause he knew Loeb’s title would ruin the reveal. Now it isnt Loeb’s fault overall, it’s all Marvel’s fault for releasing this before hand. But a word of advice for all writers making a big event series: LOOK AT ALL THE TITLES OUT CURRENTLY TO MAKE SURE YOU DONT SPOIL ANYTHING!